An open letter to Archie Manning, co-chairman of the Ole Miss football coach search committee:

This is not another impassioned plea for you to recruit your son,
Peyton, into coaching. A much more prudent choice for a second career,
should his neck injury ultimately end the first, would be television,
where he's proven he can make a great commercial and be a
better-than-average Saturday Night Live host.

This is merely the offer of a suggestion as to the course you must
take in selecting a new head football coach at your beloved alma mater,
Ole Miss.

Be bold.

Digging Ole Miss out of this hole is going to require some bold
choices, including the choice of new leadership. Don't settle for the
comfortable choice, the safe choice.

Sure, Arkansas State coach Hugh Freeze has been at Ole Miss before,
serving as an assistant to Ed Orgeron in 2006-07. He's a comfortable
choice. Sure, Louisiana-Lafayette coach Mark Hudspeth, the former North
Alabama coach and Mississippi State assistant, is a strong recruiter,
particularly in Mississippi. He's a safe choice.

But has either one coached in an FBS program long enough to show you
that they're ready to lead an SEC program? Freeze was at Ole Miss for
two years and has been at Arkansas State for two more. Hudspeth was at
Navy for one year and Mississippi State for two before taking over
Louisiana-Lafayette this year.

Look at Mike Leach. Yes, he has baggage. Yes, his personality is
quirky. Yes, there's the whole pirate thing. But he was a consistent
winner at a school where he couldn't consistently get the best players.
He did more with less, and that's exactly what the next Ole Miss coach
will have to do.

Look at Charlie Strong. He'd be the first African-American head
football coach in Ole Miss' history. He's slowly molding Louisville's
program into the defense-first type of unit he wants, and the results
are starting to show.

And you know the man can recruit. Hire him and you've got an automatic pipeline into Florida.

Look at Gus Malzahn and Kirby Smart. Yes, they lack head coaching
experience. But they've been in the SEC long enough to know what it
takes to win in this league. Tommy Tuberville and David Cutcliffe had
not been head coaches when Ole Miss hired them, and both left Oxford
with winning records.

But while being bold, also be smart. Orgeron was a bold choice to
replace Cutcliffe in 2005. Despite his recruiting prowess, he was not a
smart choice.

Yours is not an enviable task. There are obstacles to clear in
drawing the best candidates to Ole Miss, disadvantages that must be
overcome. But it can be done.

Sincerely,

Someone who had to sit through two blowouts of 40-plus points in
Vaught-Hemingway and would just as soon not have to do so again.